


Drink some more of this, feel the morning bliss

by Pazhava



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, Hurt Shiro (Voltron), Mentioned Keith (Voltron), Night Terrors, Nightmares, Season/Series 03, Shiro (Voltron) Angst, paladins are mentioned but don't make an appearance, s3e5 and s3e6
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-11
Updated: 2018-09-11
Packaged: 2019-07-11 00:01:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15960374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pazhava/pseuds/Pazhava
Summary: After his second escape from the Galra, Shiro can't seem to pinpoint where the mysterious headache comes, or why black won't respond to him. Shiro isn't doing too well after the shit he's been through





	Drink some more of this, feel the morning bliss

   Shiro bolted upright, heart hammering rapidly inside his chest. He struggled to get rid of the covers tangled around his legs, the sensation too akin of hands holding him down as he squirmed to get free. He rolled to the floor, still cocooned in the nest of blankets. The cold metal was harsh and unforgiving, not too different from the hellish ice planet he had managed to escape from a few weeks(months? Time was a haze) ago. Shiro laid there, letting the cold metal sober his rapidly swirling thoughts. Breathe in, breathe out.

   It seemed like another night terror had forced itself upon his consciousness. It wasn’t the usual brand of nightmares which consisted of Haggar holding him down as her druids tore him apart piece by piece. Sometimes dreamt about facing opponents he’d slain in the arena all over again. Shiro could feel his prosthetic slice through flesh and bone like butter, unlike a sword his hand slid thru the torso effortlessly. But lately the only indication he’d woken from a night terror was waking in cold sweat, pillow damp with tears and no memory of a dream ever taking place

These anonymous terrors had started after he’d been pulled from the galra fighter half dead and delirious from oxygen deprivation. The cryopod might of healed the nasty gash on his leg and any other injuries he’d sustained trying to escape captivity for the second time, but it never really did do anything for his mind. The pod usually brought out unpleasant memories he rather have buried deep within the confines of his mind. Nothing had really popped out of significance this time around. Save for a persistent headache that could be attributed to the stress of trying to escape but it always pressed against his mind, omnipresent at all times.

Everyone was busy enough dealing with the fallout of Zarkon’s death and the rise of Lotor, and the team seemed to be functioning well enough with Keith as the black paladin. They didn’t really need Shiro, they got by well enough which was fine. He was proud of the way everyone fell into their new positions for the time he had gone missing. Allura was now a paladin and was piloting blue with a skill none of them had shown the first time they had been thrown into the lions which made Shiro wonder how long he’d been gone since the fight with Zarkon. His hair grew fast, but the growth on his head was a year’s worth of hair. Had he really been missing for a full year? A full year trapped with the Galra was bad enough but another one? Shiro began to shake at the thought. He didn’t show any new scars save for the one on his thigh but they had done _something_ to him. 

_The pod slowly filled with viscous purple liquid it filled his nose, down his throat and into his lungs. He raised a hand towards the pod’s glass wall in a futile attempt to stop whatever that was happening but his arm wouldn’t move and he was stuck while people looked from the outside like if he were an insect in a jar._

Shiro snapped from his train of thought, squeezing his eyes shut against the phantom sensation of the purple liquid against his skin. 

_It’s just a dream, you are in your room at the castle of lions_

   He peeled himself off the floor on shaky limbs and hauled himselfat the edge of the bunk so that his thoughts could settle for a moment. He would usually wander around the castle to get his thoughts in order when sleep was hopeless but the thought of running into someone was not appealing at the moment. Shiro would run into Pidge working on a project late at night or one of the Alteans since they didn’t seem to need as much sleep as humans did. Just keeping up a conversation took too much out of Shiro these days it seemed. The others seemed fine with leaving him be either ways. But he could tell they were walking on eggshells around him, they didn’t seem how to approach Shiro. He looked wild enough he supposed, with shaggy long hair and a too pale face lined with dark eye circles.

   Keith seemed to act normal or as normal as the situation warranted around him. He didn’t press any questions about what had happened, or where he had gone off to which Shiro was extremely thankful for. But Keith had responsibilities to tend to as the leader of Voltron and he saw him sparingly.

The black lion had been extremely quiet upon his return. At first Shiro had attributed it to black getting used to Keith but he couldn’t feel her presence at the edge of his mind. It felt akin to hunger, uncomfortable and empty. 

   He reached out with his mind, but instead of the comforting presence a sharp pain sliced through his brain quick and sharp, so sudden he gasped and clutched his head as if that would will the pain away. The wave of pain left as quick as it came leaving nausea in it’s wake.

   Shiro slid sideways to the right, lying down on the mattress. Sleep would not come today it seemed. He could close his eyes but all it would bring was waves of darkness threatening to swallow him whole. All he could really do is stare at the ceiling lights with bleary eyes and hope the morning would come soon.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this before season 6 dropped at at 1 am knowing I had to get up at 6 the next morning lol. This has been edited and the title comes from Sleepless by Kate Havnevik even though I was bumping to Cardi B while editing lmao


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